ecum
AND THE THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND. *** REVELATION 14:9
Showing posts with label virgin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virgin. Show all posts
Thursday, April 02, 2026
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Pope will consecrate humanity, 'especially Russia and Ukraine,' to Mary, text says
Mar 22, 2022
by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
A woman prays the rosary following an evening prayer service at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in New York City Jan. 26, 2022. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
VATICAN CITY — While Pope Francis and bishops around the world will consecrate themselves and all humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they will include the phrase, "especially Russia and Ukraine."
In the text of the pope's prayer sent to chanceries around the globe so that bishops can join the pope March 25, a key passage for many observers reads: "Mother of God and our mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine."
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine and responding to a request particularly from Ukrainian bishops, Pope Francis had announced that he would make the act of consecration during a previously scheduled Lenten penance service in St. Peter's Basilica.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will lead the act of consecration at the same time at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. When Mary appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917 with a message encouraging prayer and repentance, she also asked for the consecration of Russia to Mary's immaculate heart.
While popes, especially St. John Paul II in 1984, made acts of consecration, they did not mention "Russia" out loud, which led some people to think that the Fatima request had not been fulfilled, even though the last surviving visionary, Sister Lucia dos Santos, said St. John Paul had done so.
The papal text pleads with Mary to "accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end, and peace spread throughout the world."
By saying "yes" to God's plan — an event remembered on the March 25 feast of the Annunciation — Mary "opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace," the prayer says. "We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more."
"To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world," the prayer says.
Written with the penance service and the Fatima call to repentance in mind, the pope began the prayer with a statement of trust in Mary's maternal love for all believers.
"You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the prince of peace," the prayer says. "Yet we have strayed from that path of peace."
Humanity, it says, has forgotten the lessons of the 20th century with its "sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars."
What is more, it says, "we have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples' dreams of peace and the hopes of the young."
"We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns," the text says.
"We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons," it continues, acknowledging also how people have "ravaged the garden of the earth with war."
"By our sins," it says, "we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters."
"Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord," the pope wrote.
The abiding presence of Mary, the text says, is a reminder that God never abandons people and is always ready to forgive.
"In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion," the pope wrote. "At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: 'Am I not here, I who am your Mother?'" as Our Lady of Guadalupe said to Juan Diego.
Like at the wedding feast of Cana, the text says, "in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!"
"Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace," the pope wrote. "May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside."
Source
VATICAN CITY — While Pope Francis and bishops around the world will consecrate themselves and all humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they will include the phrase, "especially Russia and Ukraine."
In the text of the pope's prayer sent to chanceries around the globe so that bishops can join the pope March 25, a key passage for many observers reads: "Mother of God and our mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine."
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine and responding to a request particularly from Ukrainian bishops, Pope Francis had announced that he would make the act of consecration during a previously scheduled Lenten penance service in St. Peter's Basilica.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will lead the act of consecration at the same time at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. When Mary appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917 with a message encouraging prayer and repentance, she also asked for the consecration of Russia to Mary's immaculate heart.
While popes, especially St. John Paul II in 1984, made acts of consecration, they did not mention "Russia" out loud, which led some people to think that the Fatima request had not been fulfilled, even though the last surviving visionary, Sister Lucia dos Santos, said St. John Paul had done so.
The papal text pleads with Mary to "accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end, and peace spread throughout the world."
By saying "yes" to God's plan — an event remembered on the March 25 feast of the Annunciation — Mary "opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace," the prayer says. "We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more."
"To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world," the prayer says.
Written with the penance service and the Fatima call to repentance in mind, the pope began the prayer with a statement of trust in Mary's maternal love for all believers.
"You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the prince of peace," the prayer says. "Yet we have strayed from that path of peace."
Humanity, it says, has forgotten the lessons of the 20th century with its "sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars."
What is more, it says, "we have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples' dreams of peace and the hopes of the young."
"We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns," the text says.
"We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons," it continues, acknowledging also how people have "ravaged the garden of the earth with war."
"By our sins," it says, "we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters."
"Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord," the pope wrote.
The abiding presence of Mary, the text says, is a reminder that God never abandons people and is always ready to forgive.
"In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion," the pope wrote. "At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: 'Am I not here, I who am your Mother?'" as Our Lady of Guadalupe said to Juan Diego.
Like at the wedding feast of Cana, the text says, "in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!"
"Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace," the pope wrote. "May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside."
Source
Monday, July 31, 2017
The Marian Heart of America: Our Lady of Guadalupe and our “Post-Christian” Society
Remarks by Archbishop Gomez at the 7th Annual Napa Institute Summer Conference
Archbishop Gomez (photo by courtesy of Il Sismografo)
Pubblicato il 31/07/2017
Ultima modifica il 31/07/2017 alle ore 14:07
most reverend jose h. gomez*
My dear friends,
I am just coming back from Mexico. I had the blessing a few weeks ago to lead our first pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As some of you know, I have a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. I learned it from my parents, beginning when I was a young boy growing up in Monterrey, Mexico.
Every summer my mom and dad would take my sisters and I on a 600-mile journey to visit our grandparents in Mexico City. And every time we went, our whole family would make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
My experience was not unique. This is what Catholic families do in Mexico — everyone tries to make a pilgrimage at least once a year to the Basilica.
I think most of us know the Guadalupe story. It takes us back to the “spiritual dawn” of the Church’s mission in the Americas.
It was December 1531 and the Blessed Virgin appeared to a poor Indian convert named Juan Diego on a hilltop outside Mexico City.
The Virgin entrusted Juan Diego with a mission — to go and ask the bishop to build a shrine in her name.
To convince the bishop, Our Lady gave him a sign. She made roses bloom even though it was the dead of winter. Then she used those roses to “imprint” her own image on the cloak — called a “tilma” — that Juan Diego was wearing.
And as we know, that tilma is still hanging today — almost 500 years later — in the Basilica, which is built not far from the site where she first appeared.
I am remembering that history today because I believe that Guadalupe holds the “key” for understanding the times we are living in.
So, that is what I want to talk with you about today. Also, it really makes sense because the Napa Institute, as we know, is entrusted to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I want to offer my reflections today on the important conversation that has been going on in the Church this year — the question of how we are going to live our Catholic faith and carry out the Church’s mission in a “post-Christian” society. A society that every day is becoming more and more hostile to our values and our beliefs.
It is a crucial conversation. Archbishop Chaput, is right — we are fast becoming “strangers in a strange land.” His recent book is the most important book that has been written in the Church in some time. And I agree with him — it is not a matter of indifference whether we choose one path or another going forward.
Friday, May 12, 2017
Pope, at Fatima shrine, urges end to wars tearing world apart
Reuters
Pope Francis, visiting one of Catholicism's most famous sanctuaries, on Friday prayed for an end to wars he said were lacerating the world and urged the faithful to "tear down all walls" to spread justice and peace.
At the start of a trip that will see him on Portuguese soil for less than 24 hours, Francis arrived at the Shrine of Fatima, where the Catholic Church teaches that the Madonna appeared to three Portuguese children 100 years ago in what was then an impoverished farming village.
The main purpose of the trip to the central Portuguese town, which receives around 7 million people a year, is a huge open-air Mass on Saturday to declare two of the children saints.
The two, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, died shortly after the apparitions at the ages of 9 and 10. The third visionary, Lucia Dos Santos, became a nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.
Watched by hundreds of thousands of people, Francis read a long prayer before a small statue of the Madonna, leaving a gold rose at her feet.
"I implore for the world concord among all peoples" he said, decrying blood "shed in the wars tearing our world apart".
Since his election in 2013, Francis has made hundreds of appeals for peace, including calling for international mediation to reduce tensions between the United States and North Korea.
A banner in the crowd read: "Please pray for peace in Korea".
In his prayer, which the huge crowd listened to in near silence, Francis also hammered home another major theme of his papacy - justice for the poor, refugees and outcasts.
"We will follow all paths and everywhere make our pilgrim way; we will tear down all walls and cross every frontier as we go out to every periphery to make known God's justice and peace," he said.
The story of Fatima's shepherd children has captivated Catholics since their first reported vision on May 13, 1917.
The Church believes the Madonna gave the children three messages, the so-called secrets of Fatima.
The first two were revealed soon and concerned a vision of hell, seen by believers as a prediction of the outbreak of World War Two, a warning that Russia would "spread her errors" in the world, and a need for general conversion to God and prayer.
The "third secret" intrigued the world for more than three-quarters of a century, inspiring books and cults convinced that it predicted the end of the world.
In 2000, the Vatican said it was a prediction of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul on May 13, the same day of the first reported apparition in 1917.
John Paul believed the Madonna had diverted one of the bullets that hit him from his vital organs. He donated it to the sanctuary, where it is now embedded in the crown of the statue that Francis prayed before on Friday night.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Weeping Virgin Mary statue is being called a miracle
A statue of the Virgin Mary in Fresno appears to be weeping. The family who owns the statue calls it a miracle and said it's been happening for a while. (KFSN)
By Joe Ybarra
Updated 2 hrs 37 mins ago
FRESNO, Calif. -- A statue of the Virgin Mary in Fresno, California appears to be weeping. The family who owns the statue calls it a miracle and said it's been happening for a while.
To the faithful, Maria Cardenas said the statue of the Virgin Mary is a blessing. Tears seem to well up in her right eye and stream down her face to her chin.
Cardenas said it's beautiful the way she looks right now. Every tear, she said, is nothing short of a miracle. So she collects them in a glass and shares them with those who find their way to this home.
A lot of people come and they can't believe it, she said, but they come with faith.
"I wanted to come see for myself," said Richard Quintana, neighbor.
Quintana just moved in across the street and he was invited in to take a look, for the first time.
"That's amazing. It takes the words out of my mouth-- like wow. I'm so amazed," said Quintana.
Cardenas said I don't understand why she's doing it but it's something good.
She said the statue was a Mother's Day gift she received 10 years ago almost to the day. But it didn't start weeping, she said until a year and a half ago when her cousin, Jessie Lopez, was murdered.
Sometimes she doesn't cry for weeks or months Cardenas said, but when she starts, she will cry again.
Cameras watched one of the tears fall. It was oily and smelled like roses. And another tears immediately started building up.
One man, who didn't want to be identified is the statue's caretaker. He said people have tried to figure it out but have only come up with one explanation.
"We've had priests come from all over to look at her, and all they say is that it's a miracle."
At this house the Virgin Mary statue weeps, or so it seems, for anyone to see, not just the faithful.
"We're not hiding her, but at the same time, we don't want anything to happen to her,' said the caretaker.
The people who live at the house said the door is open to anyone. They don't want to give the address, but if you are invited, you are welcome inside.
Source
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Monday, July 27, 2015
Militia of the Immaculata
Militia of the Immaculata
The Militia of the Immaculata (MI) is a worldwide evangelization movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1917 that encourages total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a means of spiritual renewal for individuals and society.
The MI movement is open to all Catholics over 7 years old. It employs prayer as the main weapon in the spiritual battle with evil. Members of the Militia Immaculata also immerse themselves in apostolic initiatives throughout society, either individually or in groups, to deepen the knowledge of the Gospel and our Catholic Faith in them and in others.
Marian consecration is a formal act of self-giving that does not stop at Mary, but is Christ-directed. It is really consecration to Jesus. The MI's mission is "To Lead Every Individual With Mary to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus."
By joining the MI, members become willing instruments of Our Lady, the woman foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15. She leads them to personal sanctification, the conversion of Church opponents and ultimately the universal reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Militia of the Immaculata began on October 16, 1917, around a table at the Conventual Franciscan seminary in Rome. Maximilian Kolbe gathered six like-minded young friars before a statue of the Blessed Virgin and drafted a charter that would establish one of the most influential Marian apostolates ever. The charter still serves as a blueprint of spiritual progress for MI members today.
Since these humble beginnings, the MI has spread throughout the world and is today present on five continents and in forty-six nations. Official membership now nears four million. For more information, click here: Militia of the Immaculata
The MI movement is open to all Catholics over 7 years old. It employs prayer as the main weapon in the spiritual battle with evil. Members of the Militia Immaculata also immerse themselves in apostolic initiatives throughout society, either individually or in groups, to deepen the knowledge of the Gospel and our Catholic Faith in them and in others.
Marian consecration is a formal act of self-giving that does not stop at Mary, but is Christ-directed. It is really consecration to Jesus. The MI's mission is "To Lead Every Individual With Mary to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus."
By joining the MI, members become willing instruments of Our Lady, the woman foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15. She leads them to personal sanctification, the conversion of Church opponents and ultimately the universal reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Militia of the Immaculata began on October 16, 1917, around a table at the Conventual Franciscan seminary in Rome. Maximilian Kolbe gathered six like-minded young friars before a statue of the Blessed Virgin and drafted a charter that would establish one of the most influential Marian apostolates ever. The charter still serves as a blueprint of spiritual progress for MI members today.
Since these humble beginnings, the MI has spread throughout the world and is today present on five continents and in forty-six nations. Official membership now nears four million. For more information, click here: Militia of the Immaculata
"Membership in the Militia means
complete dedication to the Kingdom
of God and to the salvation of souls
through Mary Immaculate."
Pope John Paul II
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Saturday, April 12, 2014
Sunday Law News Report - Hail Mary
AdventMessage
Published on Apr 10, 2014
http://AdventBible.com - This week the Sunday Law News Report examines why people say, Hail Mary. There's no doubt about it, there's a Mary revival going on in Protestant circles. The dividing wall that has solidly separated Catholics and Protestants is rapidly coming down. The Virgin Mary is the glue that is binding them together.
A growing number of Protestant theologists have concluded that their previous stance on the subject of Mary needs to be changed.
Arguments on the Virgin Mary's behalf have appeared in a flurry of scholarly essays and popular articles. Some publications have even gone so far as to devote an entire cover story on the subject. Seventh-day Adventists know that the two primary constituent elements of spiritualism—the natural immortality of the soul and communication with the spirits of the dead, meaning Virgin Mary and the "saints," are both present in Marian theology.
Just as Ellen White predicted, and in the fulfillment of prophecy, spiritualism is the adhesive that is bringing Protestantism and Catholicism into closer contact with each other.
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Friday, May 17, 2013
The Cult of the Black Virgin
......
Publication Date: September 30, 2006
There are many icons of Mary that show black faces and hands. In France, these are called Vierge Noires—Black Virgins. Elsewhere, may be called Black Madonnas or the "other Mary." Jung called her Isis, while others claim she is the symbolic remains of a prehistoric worship of the Earth Mother. She is generally connected with Cybele, Diana, Isis, and Venus, as well as with Kali, Inanna, and Lilith. Historically she is connected with the Crusades, the Islamic occupation of Spain, the Conquistadors, as well as the Merovingians and Knights Templars, who viewed her as Mary Magdalene.
Why are more than five hundred of the world’s Madonna images black or dark? Why is so little known about them? Black Virgins—a resurfacing of the powerful pagan goddesses of sexuality, the underworld, and earth wisdom—they are symbols of power and majesty, the other side of the traditional Madonna’s virginity or tender maternity. They personify the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant in a quest for lost feminine wisdom and the search for soul.
Ean Begg's fascinating book investigates the pagan origins of the phenomenon as well as the heretical Gnostic-Christian underground stream that flowed west with the cult of Mary Magdalene and resurfaced in Catharism at the time of the Crusades, especially with the Templars.
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Thursday, May 09, 2013
Billboard depicting the Virgin Mary and a Revelations verse angers local Catholics
Posted: 05/04/2013
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A controversial billboard at the intersection of Southern Boulevard and Jog Road in West Palm Beach has upset local Catholics.
Judy Carbo, a Catholic from Stuart, said she did a double take when she drove by the billboard, which shows an image of the Virgin Mary, with a Bible verse, Revelations 16:14.
"My heart nearly broke, and I had to pull back around and come look at the sign up close," said Carbo. "It blatantly gives a derogatory image of our lady and the Catholic faith."
Alison Valus, a Catholic from Jupiter, said combining an image of the Virgin Mary with that particular Bible verse, which mentions demonic spirits, is inflammatory against her religion.
"Stuff like this is very misleading, and it's hurtful," said Valus.
Reverend James Molgano with St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church said the message is offensive because it uses sacred scripture against Mary.
"To use the inherent Word of God against her, against the church, is blasphemous," said Molgano.
The number on the billboard goes to an answering machine for the Eternal Gospel Ministry. The message said the organization is closed on weekends.
Meantime, she is concerned that the billboard sends the wrong message to thousands of drivers every day.
"You want to advertise your faith, that is your right as a citizen, but not by bashing somebody else's," said Carbo. " Especially with misinformation."
Source: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_c_palm_beach_county/west_palm_beach/billboard-depicting-the-virgin-mary-and-a-revelations-verse-angers-local-catholics#ixzz2Snj3XqY1
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Friday, December 07, 2012
Queen of Heaven
2012-08-22 11:22:45
Pope: weekly General Audience

Pope: weekly General Audience
(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday. Marian devotion was the theme of his remarks, on the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin. Listen to our report: 
“Dear friends,” said Pope Benedict in Italian-language remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo, “Devotion to Our Lady is an important part of spiritual life,” adding an appeal to the faithful, that they not fail to turn confidently to Mary in prayer, saying, “She will not fail to intercede for us with her Son.”
The Pope went on to recommend that all the faithful imitate Mary’s faith and her openness to the fullness of God’s loving design. “Mary,” said Pope Benedict, “is the Queen of Heaven - close to God – and also close to each of us, a mother who loves us and listens to our voice.”
It was a theme to which the Holy Father returned during his English-language remarks:
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, especially the groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Japan and the United States of America. I also greet the young altar servers from Malta and their families. Today the Church celebrates the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May the prayers of Our Lady guide us along our pilgrimage of faith, that we may share in her Son’s victory and reign with him in his eternal Kingdom. Upon all of you I invoke the Lord’s abundant blessings!
The Holy Father also had especial greetings for the visiting Chaldean Sisters of Mary Immaculate, whose work on behalf of people in their native Iraq he praised. The Pope is in Castel Gandolfo for the Summer months, and is keeping a reduced schedule of appointments – though he is scheduled to travel to Lebanon from September 14th to September 16th.
“Dear friends,” said Pope Benedict in Italian-language remarks to pilgrims and tourists gathered in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo, “Devotion to Our Lady is an important part of spiritual life,” adding an appeal to the faithful, that they not fail to turn confidently to Mary in prayer, saying, “She will not fail to intercede for us with her Son.”
The Pope went on to recommend that all the faithful imitate Mary’s faith and her openness to the fullness of God’s loving design. “Mary,” said Pope Benedict, “is the Queen of Heaven - close to God – and also close to each of us, a mother who loves us and listens to our voice.”
It was a theme to which the Holy Father returned during his English-language remarks:
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, especially the groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Japan and the United States of America. I also greet the young altar servers from Malta and their families. Today the Church celebrates the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May the prayers of Our Lady guide us along our pilgrimage of faith, that we may share in her Son’s victory and reign with him in his eternal Kingdom. Upon all of you I invoke the Lord’s abundant blessings!
The Holy Father also had especial greetings for the visiting Chaldean Sisters of Mary Immaculate, whose work on behalf of people in their native Iraq he praised. The Pope is in Castel Gandolfo for the Summer months, and is keeping a reduced schedule of appointments – though he is scheduled to travel to Lebanon from September 14th to September 16th.
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Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Thunder of Justice and Mary
"Can we ask this simple girl to guide what has become not a cult but a huge and passionate congregation, a movement requiring a hero, a worldwide flock that has long demanded more of her? That has demanded, in some instances, that she deliver her message herself? I wonder: If Mary became merely human--if people could truly touch Mary--would Mary be enough?"
Please beware, friends, of the expositors of this type of thinking, who also refer to Mary as "Co-Redeemer, Mediator, and Advocate." First of all, nowhere in the Bible is there any reference to the Virgin Mary as being man's "Co-redeemer."
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Our Lady of China
Recently I received an interesting article from Ms. E. B., and I'd like to share it:
Our Lady of China
by Zsolt Aradi
There are other great shrines dedicated to the Virgin in China. Of these, we shall give one brief mention here: that of Our Lady of China, located near Peiping. It stands in a village named Tong Lu. This mission was started by the Vincentian Fathers. It was a poor place, perhaps the poorest in the whole region, formerly called "the place of beggars." In 1900, there were some seven hundred Christians gathered about the little hamlet. Suddenly, the famous Boxer rebellion swept China and grew to such proportions, that even small places like Tong Lu could not escape its fury. In April 1900, a force of ten thousand rioters attacked Tong Lu. The soldiers, in senseless rage, started to shoot into the sky. Then suddenly they fled, frightened, and never came back again. According to the legend, a woman in white appeared above the settlement, and the rioters' bullets were aimed at her. When the apparition did not fade, attackers had not even time to reorganize because a strange horseman put them to flight. Soon after they had disappeared beyond the horizon. Father Wu, a Chinese priest, confessed to his flock that he invoked the help of Mary. A new church was built on the site and Father Wu placed a picture of Our Lady on the main altar. He asked the painter to dress Our Lady in the royal robes of the dowager Empress Tzi-Hsi. The image of the Blessed Virgin in the royal robes of the pagan Empress, with the Christ Child on her knees, is vivid expression of Chinese tradition. It is a shrine of the Mother and her Son. Though her robes be pagan, she belongs to every age, to all people and to every race. As was told and promised in the Old Testament: "I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge and of holy hope."
The Tong Lu church was completely destroyed recently by the Chinese Communists, but the picture of Our Lady of China remains intact because only a copy of the picture was used in the church. The original was hidden in the wall behind the copy, and this was recovered and found intact. It is now in possession of Chinese priests who carry out their activities in disguise.
This item 3172 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
Our Lady of China
by Zsolt Aradi
There are other great shrines dedicated to the Virgin in China. Of these, we shall give one brief mention here: that of Our Lady of China, located near Peiping. It stands in a village named Tong Lu. This mission was started by the Vincentian Fathers. It was a poor place, perhaps the poorest in the whole region, formerly called "the place of beggars." In 1900, there were some seven hundred Christians gathered about the little hamlet. Suddenly, the famous Boxer rebellion swept China and grew to such proportions, that even small places like Tong Lu could not escape its fury. In April 1900, a force of ten thousand rioters attacked Tong Lu. The soldiers, in senseless rage, started to shoot into the sky. Then suddenly they fled, frightened, and never came back again. According to the legend, a woman in white appeared above the settlement, and the rioters' bullets were aimed at her. When the apparition did not fade, attackers had not even time to reorganize because a strange horseman put them to flight. Soon after they had disappeared beyond the horizon. Father Wu, a Chinese priest, confessed to his flock that he invoked the help of Mary. A new church was built on the site and Father Wu placed a picture of Our Lady on the main altar. He asked the painter to dress Our Lady in the royal robes of the dowager Empress Tzi-Hsi. The image of the Blessed Virgin in the royal robes of the pagan Empress, with the Christ Child on her knees, is vivid expression of Chinese tradition. It is a shrine of the Mother and her Son. Though her robes be pagan, she belongs to every age, to all people and to every race. As was told and promised in the Old Testament: "I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge and of holy hope."
The Tong Lu church was completely destroyed recently by the Chinese Communists, but the picture of Our Lady of China remains intact because only a copy of the picture was used in the church. The original was hidden in the wall behind the copy, and this was recovered and found intact. It is now in possession of Chinese priests who carry out their activities in disguise.
This item 3172 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Bomb threat hits Lourdes pilgrims
15 August 2010
Last updated at 09:05 ET
Bomb threat hits Lourdes pilgrims

Roman Catholic believers flock to Lourdes from all over the world
Thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims have been evacuated from Lourdes in south-west France after a bomb threat, officials are reported as saying.
The threat came as 30,000 worshippers were in the town to celebrate the annual Feast of the Assumption, the French news agency AFP said.
Lourdes is famous for what many Roman Catholics believe was a vision of the Virgin Mary by a local girl in 1858.
The Sanctuary at Lourdes is visited each year by six million believers.
It houses the shrine or grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes and on 15 August believers celebrate the Virgin Mary's ascent to heaven.
"A bomb warning was received at the police station, announcing that four bombs were going to go off at around 1500 (1400GMT)," a church press officer told AFP.
He said the evacuation was taking place calmly.
Bomb disposal experts were at the scene, police said.
Cure claims
The Sanctuary is the name given to the central area of the Lourdes pilgrimage site.
The site is home to 22 places of worship, including the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, which marks the spot where pilgrims believe the Virgin Mary appeared.
It was founded after a 14-year-old French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have witnessed a series of visions in a cave.
Since then, many people suffering illness or infirmity claim to have been miraculously cured by spring water coming from the Sanctuary.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10980157
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Last updated at 09:05 ET
Bomb threat hits Lourdes pilgrims
Roman Catholic believers flock to Lourdes from all over the world
Thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims have been evacuated from Lourdes in south-west France after a bomb threat, officials are reported as saying.
The threat came as 30,000 worshippers were in the town to celebrate the annual Feast of the Assumption, the French news agency AFP said.
Lourdes is famous for what many Roman Catholics believe was a vision of the Virgin Mary by a local girl in 1858.
The Sanctuary at Lourdes is visited each year by six million believers.
It houses the shrine or grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes and on 15 August believers celebrate the Virgin Mary's ascent to heaven.
"A bomb warning was received at the police station, announcing that four bombs were going to go off at around 1500 (1400GMT)," a church press officer told AFP.
He said the evacuation was taking place calmly.
Bomb disposal experts were at the scene, police said.
Cure claims
The Sanctuary is the name given to the central area of the Lourdes pilgrimage site.
The site is home to 22 places of worship, including the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, which marks the spot where pilgrims believe the Virgin Mary appeared.
It was founded after a 14-year-old French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have witnessed a series of visions in a cave.
Since then, many people suffering illness or infirmity claim to have been miraculously cured by spring water coming from the Sanctuary.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10980157
.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Thousands await Knock's new Virgin Mary vision
Pilgrims have travelled to a rain-soaked corner of western Ireland hoping to witness a miracle
They came from Wexford, Manchester and even India, driven on by the hope that in this rain-soaked corner of western Ireland the mother of God would appear to them this weekend.
All along Knock's main street the pilgrims slept in vans and motor homes, all hoping to book a space near the site where a Dublin-based spiritual healer predicted the Virgin Mary would materialise.
Joe Coleman's visions of a Marian apparition on the exact spot where villagers claimed they saw the Virgin Mary in 1879 have created a fervour across the Catholic world.
Coleman complained that the Catholic church had not made a priest available to recite the Rosary with him and the thousands gathered in waiting. Describing himself as "a visionary of our Blessed Mother", he said the visitation would only be visible "to people who come with an open heart".
With up to 10,000 pilgrims descending on the village, Coleman's promise that Christ's mother would appear through a "dancing sun" in the sky has at least given Knock's economy an unexpected boost. At The Shrine bed and breakfast across the road from the Marian Shrine, built to commemorate the 19th-century apparition, the manager Nicola said all of their rooms were booked up on Friday evening.
Across the road, the O'Brien and Berry families from Co Wexford were bedding down for the night inside their van. Surrounded by her daughter Anne and grandsons, Martin and Luke, Alice Berry said that while she wanted see the Virgin Mary appear she was afraid of the message she would be bringing from heaven. "Of course I'm here to see Our Lady but I am worried about what she is going to say. I'm afraid she's going to tell us something terrible," said Alice.
The Berrys, like the most of those gathered this weekend beside the Knock shrine, are travellers. Their presence has illuminated the social chasm between them and the Republic's settled majority.
Many of the travellers gathering inside the shrine's grounds late on Friday complained that the public toilets had been locked and car parks blocked to prevent them from parking their vans, motor homes and caravans. They also pointed out that all of the pubs in the village have been shut and none were prepared to sell them carry-outs.
The shrine has its origins in the visions of a Miss Mary McLoughlin, the 45-year-old housekeeper, who on 21 August 1879 claimed to have seen on the south gable of Knock parish church "a wonderful number of strange figures; one like the blessed Virgin Mary and one like St. Joseph". It wasn't until 1936 and two commissions of inquiry before the Catholic church officially agreed that the visions were genuine. Sceptics have always argued that they were caused by the use of magic lanterns owned by a local police officer at the time.
While the Irish hierarchy maintains the 19th-century Knock apparitions were real it does not support Coleman's claims. But despite urging caution, the Irish Catholic bishops have been unable to dissuade the thousands who came this weekend to wait for the Virgin Mary's second coming to Mayo.
During the first "sighting" on 11 October, Coleman urged pilgrims to stare at the sun. Many of them claimed they saw clouds parting to reveal a bright sunlit image of a woman in white. Others, however, were more sceptical.
Before leaving the shrine yesterday, Coleman said the Virgin Mary had appeared but he was not yet prepared to reveal the message she had sent him for the world.
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